Month: April 2018

With cable prices always seeming to be on the rise, and people everywhere trying to save a few $, cord cutting it becoming bigger and more of a viable option.

This will quickly go through some of the free or paid services available out there which are 100% legal (At least in the terms of the streaming service owning the rights of streaming the content)

For individual content on each of these services (Is X show available on Y service?), please refer to a site likehttps://www.justwatch.com/ca
for listings.

Netflix

Just about everyone knows about Netflix now, they were one of the pioneers early on in the streaming game.
Overall, this one will give you the biggest Bang for the Buck.

Netflix Canada’s content, will be different than in the US, or other countries (due to ownership rights of the content in Canada).
But there are 1000’s of movies and TV shows available, including all the Netflix original content. There is a wide variety of children’s content available as well.
Currently Canada has the luck of still having all Disney content available on Netflix Canada, including many fairly recent titles.

Netflix is available to stream on just about any device out there. Android, iOS, as well as other streaming platforms like Roku, WD, etc. Just about any SmartTV OS, as well as Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo platforms. As well as being available to stream via web browser.

Cost:

$8.99/month – Only one user can access the account at the time. And only in Standard Definition

$13.99/month – Up to 4 users simultaneously. Streaming up to Ultra HD (4k), depending on content.

Internet connection may vary your quality as well. Rarely will you get buffering with Netflix, but instead what you will see is a drop in quality. If there is any limitation of internet speed needed to provide the best quality, it will drop it down to a lower quality to still allow streaming.

CraveTV

CraveTV is a streaming service offered by Bell TV. It is available to anyone to sign up to, without requiring a TV subscription.

It is pretty much all just TV based content, not movies. But it does contain many titles, both past and present. As well as having the streaming rights to new and old HBO content in Canada.

Crave is available on a fair number of platforms. Android and iOS, as well as web browsers. Only on Xbox One (no 360, playstation or nintendo). Only Samsung SmartTVs.
No Roku or other streaming platforms.

Cost:

$7.99/month – Up to two devices simultaneously.

Amazon Prime Video

Amazon Prime Video Canada does have its own service. But much like Netflix, the Canadian service does have a very different content library. (this mostly due to most of the rights of stuff on the US Amazon service, already being obtained by other providers in Canada)

It does have a mix of movies and TV on it. Primarily older content but there is some more semi recent (a bunch of the TV shows).

It is available on iOS and Android, most SmartTVs, and web browsers. Any of the newer gaming platforms, as well as most other streaming devices (Roku, etc)

Cost:

$79.99 / year – This is currently not available as a separate purchasable service at this time, and is paired with the regular Amazon Prime membership. (Amazon Prime gives you free standard shipping on most orders, and 2 day shipping on any prime item)

Overall, Amazon Prime video is not worth it separately on its own, due to the limited content. If you purchase enough things regularly from Amazon, and consider a Prime subscription, its worth it as another source for watching some content.

TubiTV

Tubi is an odd services, but it is completely FREE.
They appear to pick up licenses for many things that others have not/dont want to pick up.
There is an odd collection of mostly older content, of movies and TV shows going back as far as the 80s.

It is available on Android and iOS, as well as your web browser. It will work on Samsung and Sony SmartTVs, as well as Playstation only. It will also work on the Roku.

Cost:

FREE

There is nothing to write home about on here, but its a 100% free service. Can be worth it to get that nostalgia trip, on some old favorites.

Google Play & iTunes

Both of these are not the traditional streaming service, at least in terms as the same subscription services above.

Both of them have a huge content, probably much larger than any of the above, and do have some of the same content.

The difference is, you dont pay for an overall subscription, but more per item.
Some things are available to RENT on Google Play (like a video rental store) where you are able to watch it over a short period of time.
Otherwise, you are paying an OWNERSHIP price for the movie/TV. You then own that digital copy.

Overall cost wise, owning all your TV and other media by this method, will generally cost the MOST over time.
The only difference in the long run is, compared to the above service say like Netflix, is they can choose to remove any content at any time, and you retain no ownership, and can not watch anymore. Vs on these services, you do then OWN that copy and it can remain available to you.

(This falls back also then to the article I wrote HERE on digital movies, towards the end of the post. Cost wise, is always one thing to look at. The average movie by the above services for something fairly new, usually is in the $14-20 price range. You can often buy the Bluray + DVD + Digital combo pack, for only a few $ more, and have 2 other ways to watch as well. Even better if you wait a bit, you can sometimes find them as low as $7 at places like walmart for bluray combo packs, while the pure digital copy is still $15 on its own)

Hopefully this has covered over some details on some of the more major contenders content wise out there.

There are always other smaller free ones as well. Things like CrunchyRoll for Anime, etc.